Edtech's Cinderella Story

What to expect:

5 min read

This week, we dive into edtech's latest Cinderella story to see how AI can help some of our special education students. Here’s what you can expect:

• Tech Talk: Screen readers + AI = big win

• Surplus Scoop: A chest tattoo - the ultimate teacher appreciation

• Brainy Bits: ADHD is on the rise; are schools responding?

Tech Talk

Iceland to the rescue

This week we turn to our northern friends in Iceland for a revolutionary app that has taken the world by storm - Atlas Primer. What initially started as a classroom experiment has erupted into one of TIME’s 2024 best edtech companies (no seriously, check it out here). Let’s see why.

Atlas Primer is not just an ordinary screen reader app; it has the ability to turn all forms of text into speech immediately. On top of this, leveraging the power of AI, users can verbally ask the app questions about the material they just uploaded or have it orally summarize any text within seconds. This is ChatGPT’s screen-reading younger sibling - and boy is it useful.

Why the popularity though? Well, besides the positive press, the app claims to add at least 90 minutes of daily learning back to the user. This can result in a 300% increase in efficiency for students and professionals alike.

Imagine a student identified with dyslexia; reading text of any kind can be challenging. Not only would an app like this equalize the playing field (as teachers can upload all of their text to the app), but now they can verbally ask Atlas Primer questions about the text and receive a decent answer. The groundbreaking part is that it’s doing it all verbally - these students no longer need to wrestle with typing or copying from a speech-to-text app.

Students identified with ADHD stand to benefit too. By having both text and audio at the same time, research shows that some of these students will retain more information from the multiple avenues of stimulation, creating an ADHD-positive environment without changing the curriculum. It can also create quizzes based on uploaded material to help students study with less barriers. 

Pricing wise we see nothing too scary considering what the app promises. The free version gives you all of the AI abilities but limits you to only three uploads; $20 USD/month makes this unlimited. Depending on how many students you have that will benefit from an app like this, it’s not a terrible deal.

As always, The PEN Weekly is not affiliated with Atlas Primer in any way, shape, or form. But considering the popularity and power of an app like this, we can’t help but see it working in many classrooms.

Have you heard of Atlas Primer before today? Hit reply and let us know!

Surplus Scoop

Here’s our weekly roundup of interesting education stories from around the world. Click each link to learn more:

• Tattooing a note on their chest: how one student forever honored their hero teacher.

• Financial literacy is now a graduation requirement in this Canadian province. Should your school district adopt the same?

• Almost 1/3 of UK teachers are reporting more hungry students showing up to class - how do we intervene?

Brainy Bits

ADHD and UDL - more than just acronyms

This week’s study turns to the other ‘I’ country - Ireland, where researchers look to find ways to make our schools more ADHD friendly. Doyle et. al (2024) implemented a mixed methods study to dive deeper into this.

Why Ireland? Like many other parts of the world, at least 5% of all students registering for post-secondary education are identified with ADHD. This increase is magnified in our younger grades.

The researchers investigated the experiences of over 300 university students. Through their responses, they were most concerned with determining if an ADHD identification impacted their social and academic progress, and what (if any) supports were available to help. Using longitudinal data and survey results they came to the conclusion of an overwhelming need for reform. Here are the largest areas of improvement needed:

• Younger identified students need to be taught skills that target the symptoms of ADHD as opposed to simply finding a label

• UDL, otherwise known as Universal Design for Learning, needs to be reflected in school policies and curriculum at every level

• More dialogue is needed to increase staff understanding of the needs of these students

• Schools need to better acknowledge the complexity of sensory sensitivity (for example, a 3 hour lecture vs. 1 hour chunks three times per week)

With the number of identified students expected to increase in a short period of time, what can we do at the elementary and secondary levels? One recommendation given by this academic paper is to implement skill coaching at the secondary level to better prepare students for working with their symptoms and not against them.

Demand for ADHD intervention in our schools is increasing worldwide. Apps may help but without understanding their symptoms first, students will continue to struggle. For example, in this study alone, more than 40% of initial respondents were not even diagnosed - they simply assumed they were living with ADHD due to misconceptions about it. If we look at the flip side, many students who actually present symptoms are most likely going unidentified due to the same reason. This is where we as teachers can step in to help identify and implement interventions of all kinds.

Have you noticed an increase in ADHD identified students? Have any strategies helped your learners? Let us know!

Tell your friends about us!

Like what you’ve seen? Forward us to your friends and colleagues so y’all have something to talk about next week. 😎

Have an idea for some classroom tech, strategies, or research that you think is valuable for the community? Respond to this email and let us know.

Interested in growing with us? Want us to feature your tech tool, resource, or research? Hit reply to start a conversation.

References

This week’s issue adapts information from the following sources:

Tech Talk:

Atlas Primer. (2024). Learn by listening and speaking. Retrieved from https://www.atlasprimer.com/ 

Brainy Bits:

Doyle, A., Healy, O., Paterson, J., Lewis, K., & Treanor, D. (2024). What does an ADHD-friendly university look like? A case study from Ireland. Volume 7, 100345. International Journal of Educational Research Open. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedro.2024.100345